Chapter 78 Zhou Zelin's Choice◇
Zhou Zelin was summoned the morning after Emperor Chengqian talked with Zhu Xi.
Facing the almighty emperor, Zhou Zelin had no choice but to bow down and kneel on the ground, kowtow three times and nine times to the monarch who had sentenced his father to death.
"The guilty minister Zhou Zelin pays homage to His Majesty!"
"Okay, get up."
Emperor Cheng Qian snorted.
"yes."
"Zhou Zelin, I want to ask you, are you dissatisfied with me for ordering your father to be executed?!"
Emperor Cheng Qian asked forcefully as soon as he came up.
Zhou Zelin had no choice but to crawl lower.
"I dare not."
"Hmph! Only you know whether you dare or not!" Emperor Cheng Qian snorted again, "Your father, that old stubborn man, didn't know the difference between the primary and the secondary. In his eyes, he didn't let anyone else go except Chang Sa and the Crown Princess's mother! He even dared to fool me and wanted to use the Crown Prince!
I didn't kill him outright because I saw that although he was stubborn and foolish, he was still quite upright. At least he wouldn't do something as foolish as supporting the emperor's grandson to usurp the throne. At most, he would just encourage those scholars to help him. What could he achieve?!
But then the Crown Prince passed away, and the Hu Xiang group refused to let him go, so I had no choice but to sentence him to death..."
Zhou Zelin sneered in his heart:
When Prime Minister Hu put pressure on you, you ordered my father to be executed to appease him. When did you, Emperor Cheng Qian, become a king who would allow others to threaten you?!
You've been displeased with my father for a long time, and after the Crown Prince passed away, you had no place to vent your anger, so you killed him to vent your anger! Now you're spouting all this nonsense, aren't you just trying to use both kindness and force to keep the Zhou family loyal to you?!
But even if he knew this, what would Zhou Zelin dare to say now! ?
Now the entire Zhou family is in the hands of Emperor Cheng Qian. If you don't do what he says and don't curry favor with him, the entire Zhou family will be wiped out in an instant.
Therefore, he could only lower his head even lower, pretend to be submissive, and kneel down there to listen to Emperor Chengqian's lecture...
After kneeling for a long time, Emperor Chengqian finally finished his words of warning and comfort. Perhaps his performance made Emperor Chengqian feel quite satisfied, and he finally heard him start to talk about the arrangements for their Zhou family:
"Your Zhou family has done quite well these days. Not only did you donate potato seeds, but your children also made significant contributions in the defense of Fuzhou City, especially Zhou Jin. Fuzhou City was able to escape and my grandson was able to be saved. That kid's contribution is indispensable!
Based on these merits, pardoning your Zhou family is enough! I called you here this time to ask you, if I pardon your family, do you plan to continue to return to the Ministry of Rites, or what do you want to do? "
Emperor Cheng Qian tapped the table with his fingers and asked Zhou Zelin who was kneeling below.
Zhou Zelin didn't even dare to raise his head after hearing this. He just lowered his head and knelt down and replied:
"To be honest with you, Your Majesty, I am now in poor health and I am afraid that I can no longer serve you in the court. If you can grant me the grace of Your Majesty, I am willing to retire to the countryside and open a private school. This will be my humble contribution to Your Majesty and to Dayan.
As for my sons and nephews, if Your Majesty still feels the need to use them, it would be a great honor for my Zhou family! I will definitely teach them to live up to the Emperor's grace and serve Your Majesty faithfully! "
After hearing this, Emperor Cheng Qian knew that Zhou Zelin wanted to give the opportunity to the nephews of the Zhou family, so he nodded and said "yes," which was considered an agreement.
Zhou Zelin took the opportunity to say:
"Your Majesty, when the Tartars besieged Fuzhou City, the Li family of Luzhou also made great efforts to protect those potato seeds. I dare not take all the credit for this, so I would like to report this to you."
"The Li family of Luzhou? Huh?! The Li family that was exiled to Liaodong more than ten years ago?" Emperor Cheng Qian asked in confusion.
"That's right. Now, the entire Li family is only left with twelve households and sixty people in Baili Village. Apart from the elderly and the weak, there are only a dozen able-bodied men left."
What he meant was that the Li family was almost dead, so please show some mercy to them for their contribution in protecting Tudou!
If Zhou Zelin hadn't mentioned it, Emperor Cheng Qian would have even forgotten the existence of the Li family. Even now, he couldn't remember why he had exiled the Li family to Liaodong. But it couldn't be a big deal, otherwise he wouldn't have forgotten it.
Thinking it was just a matter of raising my hand, I hummed again.
Then, he picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip.
When Zhou Zelin saw this, he quickly and tactfully retreated.
When he got home, Zhou Ruiquan asked him how he was, and he said,
"Get ready, the imperial edict should be coming in a couple of days!"
…
Sure enough, the next day, the imperial edict pardoned the entire Zhou family, and dozens of people from the Li family in Taohua Village were also pardoned.
The moment they received the imperial edict, all the adults in the families cried, except Zhou Zelin and Zhou Jin and Zhou Yu who were not at home.
I'm finally looking forward to the day when I can go back!
On that day, everyone couldn't wait to pack their gifts, especially Wang's mother and daughter. They looked so overjoyed that they couldn't even hide it! !
"What are you so happy about?! They only said they would pardon us, but they didn't say they would return our shops and farms. Even our military household status hasn't changed. We don't even know where to live when we go back!"
Zhou Ruiquan couldn't help but complain to Zhou Zelin in private.
When Zhou Ruiquan first received the imperial edict, he was extremely excited. But when he came to his senses, he realized that although Emperor Cheng Qian had pardoned them, he had only pardoned them as people. Not only did he not exonerate Lord Zhou, he also did not return their belongings to them!
Moreover, their military household status was not changed, which means that their children will still have to serve in the army in the future. It’s just that because they were pardoned and returned to Beijing, all the sons and nephews of the Zhou family in the Liaodong military camp can apply to be transferred to the military camp near Kyoto.
Therefore, Zhou Ruiquan came to his senses and felt that Emperor Cheng Qian was a bit too stingy. At least he could give them some land. When the families were first exiled to Liaodong, they were each given ten acres of wasteland!
If Emperor Cheng Qian were present at this moment and heard his muttering, he would definitely scold him, "Did I feed all the five thousand taels of my private treasury to the dogs?! That's almost all the private money I have! You want anything else? No way!"
…
The army led by Emperor Cheng Qian will return to Kyoto tomorrow. Before leaving, Zhu Xi came to Zhou's house specially and wanted them to go with the army. The excuse he made was naturally that it would be safer to go back with the army, but everyone knew that he was thinking about going with Zhou Yu.
However, because Zhou Zelin had always wanted to move the remains of Lord Zhou, who was buried on the road to exile, to the ancestral tomb, and Zheng also felt that her daughter was now grown up and it was time to avoid suspicion, she finally declined Zhu Xi's invitation.
So, the Emperor Chengqian and his entourage set off for Kyoto the next day. Besides Zhu Xi and Mu Qingni, they were accompanied by Zhou Jin, Zhou Po, Zhou Dai, and Han Baihu, who had been transferred to the three major camps in Kyoto...
All of them were transferred to the Huben Camp led by Lei Zhan. Except for Zhou Jin who was directly promoted to the rank of Qian Hu, the rest were transferred at the same level.
After all, the soldiers in Kyoto are just like the officials in Kyoto, each position is filled up. Except for people like Zhou Jin who have made great contributions and have appeared in front of the emperor, it is not easy for others to be transferred there!
So no one was dissatisfied, especially Captain Han. He had never dreamed that he would one day become an officer in the Three Great Camps of Kyoto, a unit that directly protected the Emperor!
Therefore, on the day he received the transfer order, he sold the newly purchased house in Baili Town at a low price.
Han Baiqianhu thought that since he had already gone to Kyoto, he would naturally marry and have children there and live his life there. Who would want to go back to Baili Town?!
So, even though he lost fifty taels from selling the house, he was still very excited. Because he was too excited, Captain Han couldn't stop talking. So, everyone heard him chattering non-stop along the way. Zhou Po, who was already worried about home, was so annoyed that he didn't go with him.
…
In Taohua Village, three days after Emperor Chengqian and his entourage left, the Zhou and Li families also set out...
Before setting off, the families only notified a few households in the clan with whom they were still in contact. As for those side branches, Zhou Ruiquan and Zhou Zelin thought about it again and again and decided not to contact them anymore.
Although the catastrophe of the Zhou family was indeed caused by the direct branch, Lord Zhou angered the emperor in order to repay General Chang's great kindness!
But it wasn't just Elder Zhou who owed General Chang a debt. General Chang had saved the lives of his entire clan! If it weren't for General Chang's life-saving rescue, the Zhou family would have been wiped out long ago! How could there be any so-called direct or indirect branches today?!
Everything Lord Zhou did was to repay the Zhou family for their kindness!
Zhou Ruiquan felt that even if Lord Zhou's actions were somewhat radical, and the entire clan was exiled, the direct lineage had already paid a bloody price for this matter, and even Lord Zhou himself had died...
Moreover, in order for the Zhou family members to survive in Liaodong, Zhou Zelin put aside his past grudges in the past two years, asked everyone for help, and used all his favors to help them!
Now, Zhou Jin, Zhou Po and others have earned back their merits in exchange for the pardon of the entire Zhou family...
Zhou Ruiquan felt that what they had done for the rest of the Zhou family was enough! Their direct descendants also had a clear conscience!
So, after discussing it with Zhou Zelin, they decided that since everyone had already broken up, they should just take care of themselves and each family should take care of their own! When they all returned in the future, if the younger generation wanted to contact and interact with each other, they would not object. If not, then forget it...
…
The way back is naturally much easier than the way here, because the families are not short of money now, so they will naturally not make themselves as miserable as when they were exiled here!
A few months ago, when Zhu Xi came to look at the potatoes, he also brought the five thousand taels of silver that Emperor Chengqian had given him to buy potato seeds, and forced it on Zhou Zelin...
At that time, Zhou Zelin decided to give 3,000 taels of silver to Zhou Jin's family, who had discovered and successfully grown potatoes. The remaining 2,000 taels of silver were divided equally among the families.
Add to that the earnings from Zheng's clothing workshops and Zhou Yu and her master's mosquito coil workshops over the past few years, and none of the families are short of money now...
Therefore, in order to avoid suffering on the road before returning to Kyoto, several families pooled their money to buy three more mule carts. Together with the two original carts owned by the Zhou family, there were five mule carts in total, which was enough to carry their belongings and several family members!
Now, the potatoes stored at home had been taken away by people sent by Emperor Chengqian, and most of the food at home had been sold by several families, leaving only some to be made into dry food for the journey...
So, the only belongings they have left now are some clothes, quilts and the like...very simple!
The Li family had a simpler life. As they had no money, they only pooled their money to buy three mule carts. Besides the luggage, they were barely enough for the women and children to sit on. The men decided to take turns walking.
In the end, the Zhou family couldn't bear to watch. They felt that after all, they were all neighbors who had lived in the cave together, so how could they just sit on their side and watch them walk? So they emptied their mule cart, and everyone squeezed in, finally loading everyone in, and then they set off for Kyoto...
…
The trip lasted for more than two months. During this period, not only did they escort Lord Zhou's ashes back to the Zhou family's ancestral tomb, they also accompanied the Li family back to their hometown. However, more than ten years had passed, and the Li family had no relatives in their hometown, so in the end no one stayed and they all followed the Zhou family to Kyoto.
Zhou Ruiquan originally wanted to continue living in his hometown with the eldest branch of the Zhou family. Although their ancestral home was also confiscated, the hundreds of acres of sacrificial land at the ancestral tomb were still there, which was enough for their family to live on!
But Wang's mother and Liu's mother were unwilling to do so and all wanted to follow him to Kyoto. In addition, Zhou Zelin said that the three families together had less than 20 people, so there was no reason to separate them. So they followed him back to Kyoto...
…
By the time the families arrived in Kyoto, it was already the end of April. Zhou Luo and Zhou Gong had already ridden into the capital three days earlier to contact Zhou Po, Zhou Jin, and others...
Zhou Po, Zhou Jin, and the others had rented seven or eight small courtyards near their military camp a month ago, and when the families arrived, they took them in to settle down...
Although the courtyard is located at the outermost part of Kyoto and is a long way away from Kyoto's wealthy circle, it is already very good for everyone who has lived in adobe houses in Liaodong for more than two years.
After two years of setbacks and hardships, both the Zhou and Li families have become resilient...
Therefore, everyone is full of confidence in returning to Kyoto...
The author has something to say:
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2022-07-15 13:36:42 and 2022-07-16 08:55:29~
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine: give me 1 Gun to hit the car;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 1 bottle from Jushan;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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